Rochester's reigns in the rain

Saturday

Sep 26, 2009 at 12:01 AMSep 26, 2009 at 11:30 PM

INDUSTRY — The weather and field conditions were far from ideal for offensive football, but they didn’t bother the Rochester High School football team.

The Rams’ focus is defense, and that effort shone through the elements in a 39-0 shutout of Western Beaver Saturday. Rochester remained unbeaten at 4-0, 2-0 in the WPIAL Class A Big Seven while Western Beaver fell to 1-3, 1-1.

“The defense is always swarming,” said Derek Gallagher, a senior captain who recorded the game’s only interception. “We have high standards for the defense here at Rochester. The first team hasn’t been scored on all year.

“This was good weather for Rochester football — smash-mouth football. We like playing in this weather.”

While Rochester’s defense was standing tall and enjoying the weather, Western Beaver’s wasn’t doing badly either despite the lopsided score. After three quarters, Rochester led just 17-0 thanks to two first-half touchdowns from Trey Johnson and a third-quarter field goal by Jonathan Johnson.

The field goal was set up by Gallagher’s 44-yard run to convert a 3rd-and-18 yards the Rochester 31-yard line. The gain came on a draw play, despite the Western Beaver coaches telling their charges to be ready for the draw.

“When the offensive line works as hard as mine does, we could tell them where we’re going to run and we’d succeed,” Gallagher said. “All I had to do was run.”

Although Gallagher rushed for 85 yards and the Rams gaining 342 yards in total offense, Rochester coach Gene Matsook wasn’t impressed with his offense.

“Defensively, I thought we played a great game,” said Rochester head coach Gene Matsook. “I wasn’t pleased with the way we played on offense. We’ve got to get better.”

The offense seemed to get the message in the fourth quarter as the Rams scored three times: TD passes from Adamson to Terry Gettings and Trey Johnson, and a short run by Nick Tapia.

“The win is more important than the three touchdowns,” said Johnson, who rushed for 64 yards and had 101 receiving yards.

His second touchdown catch was an acrobatic one where he turned completely around to catch Jasson Adamson’s pass.

“I knew where I needed to be to catch Jasson’s pass. I just had to adjust.”

Western Beaver finished with 114 yards in total offense, 50 in the first half and 64 in the second.